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14 September 2011

Understandably, Nepali football fans are very disappointed with the recent Under-16 results both in the SAFF and AFC U-16 tournaments. Rightly or wrongly ANFA officials have always led us to believe that “We Are the Best at Youth Level,” so the fact that we are failing to get results in the youth ranks is depressing.

It is important to keep things in perspective though. Look at the Maldives for example. Results wise they are miserable at the youth level but their clubs and Senior National Team are very formidable in regional competitions. That is why football development experts almost uniformly say youth competitions are about developing player and not the final score.

Perhaps what is disheartening to Nepali football fans is that we know Nepal is always playing for results and never development and we still lose. Therefore it is like a double negative – not only are we losing, but our players are not developing!

Jagjit Shrestha and Anil Gurung most recently went West to Germany and England respectively to try their luck in European football. Rohit Chand could join them if his paperwork ever gets sorted. With the help of the Nepali diaspora, and sometimes dodgy agents, footballers are increasingly finding new opportunities to play or at the very least go for trials at Western clubs. There is one slight issue however, the Western clubs we are talking about are not Manchester United or Bayern Munich or even Scunthorpe United or 1860 Munich for that matter. They are semi-pro and amateur clubs buried in the deep pyramid structures of European football.